


Zombies on Fire

by celestialshimmer



Series: Tumblr Ficlets [6]
Category: The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: (this is my attempt at writing action that is), Action, Also background appearances of Piper and Frank, Background appearances of Artemis and the Hunters (so Thalia), Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Rating for the (attempt at) action and mention of sex and language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-24
Updated: 2014-05-24
Packaged: 2018-01-26 08:22:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1681427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celestialshimmer/pseuds/celestialshimmer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on sleepynico's prompt for the Ghostfire Festival Secret Santa. I unfortunately lost the prompt, but it had something to do with Valdangelo and zombies on fire. So. Yeah. Originally posted on Tumblr in December.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Zombies on Fire

They were not gonna die. They were not gonna die. There was no way in hell Leo would let this end badly and they’d die.

At least that’s what he told himself.

He was standing back-to-back with Piper, fending off the miniature rabid-looking dogs. It would be  _so_  not fair if he died because of a little twerp of a dog the size of his foot.

Above them, Frank was flying and trying to attack the canines from above. It was only kind of working. For the millionth time, Leo looked nervously at the cave entrance, hoping the reinforcements would soon arrive.

He knew it wasn’t good to fight while distracted, but he couldn’t help it. His best friend and his boyfriend had both been injured last he’d seen, and he just didn’t know what to do. But Hazel was the one with medical knowledge, so the three of them had to go on ahead to find Percy and Annabeth.  _Wow, deja vu. Never had to go through creepy underground tunnels to rescue those two goofs before._

"It’s so amusing to see you try to fight off my soldiers," came a voice from the opposite direction.

Leo whirled around to see a tall guy walk in, carrying a bow in one and and a long knife in the other. He stayed in the shadows, leaning back against a wall.  _Wait, where did he come from?_  Leo wondered. The only other entrance in this cave was a good ten feet from where the stranger was standing.

"Who the hell are you?" Piper demanded. "Why are you calling mangy dogs your soldiers?"

The guy only chuckled. “Trying to charmspeak a god, Piper McLean? Not very wise.”

Leo felt Frank-in-crow-form land on his head. Whoop-dee-doo. Now his hair literally was a crow’s nest.

"Let me warn you, turn around now," the stranger continued.

"Not a chance," Leo growled. "You have our friends."

"Me? Of course not! It’s not my fault they were hidden at the end of one of  _my_ tunnels. Your bone to pick is with someone else.” The guy stepped out of the shadows, but to Leo’s shock, they seemed to follow him. Even though the light was shining on him now, it’s like he was wearing some of the shadows as a robe.

"Then just let us get our friends out of here," said Piper. "We’ll be out of your way in no time if you call off… your soldiers."

"Sorry, can’t," shadow-guy said with a shrug. "The dogs don’t like any intruders and you all are intruders."

"You can’t? What kind of crappy god are you?" Leo yelled, but then a rumble from behind him interrupted.

"Hey, honey. Out of the way, please," Nico di Angelo’s voice was barely audible over the din. Leo whirled around again to see a grinning Nico in front of a shitload of zombies.

If he was honest, Leo  _hated_  the zombies. Creepy motherfuckers. But he played cool with them because they were something his boyfriend got kinda proud of, and hey, he’d hate it if Nico ever dissed the flames. Plus, the walking undead might save all their asses here.

Plus, Nico had called him honey, something he kinda liked. So Leo threw himself out of the way.

Nico stormed forward, brandishing his Stygian iron blade as he called forth his undead army. They immediately began defending the demigods from the vicious but confused dogs.

"How quaint," Shadow-guy said, sarcastically clapping. "But did you really think these corpse slaves could work against me, little brother?"

Leo recoiled in shock. Nico stood firm. “If I’d known you were here, Zagreus, I’d have just called Artemis. You accuse me of turning the dead into slaves, when you turn wild animals into your personal mindless army? She’d have taken care of you for us.”

"Oh, I’m more than capable of enslaving the dead," Zagreus sneered. "They’re just so disgusting - I prefer living flesh."

"That’s not what I fucking said, you-" Nico broke off as Zagreus snapped his fingers. "What did you do?" he exclaimed.

If Nico didn’t look so panicked all of a sudden, Leo would have asked what the big deal was about snapping fingers. Well, he still wanted to ask it, but it probably wasn’t the best idea.

All of Nico’s zombies suddenly let go of the dogs they were attacking and turned to face Nico, Leo, and Piper. Leo swallowed.

Nico backed up rapidly, stopping only once he’d bumped into Leo. Leo reached out to steady him to find that his boyfriend was shaking. “Hey, it’s okay,” he whispered. He wanted to yell “WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?” but figured it could be counter-productive.

He felt Nico take a deep breath. “Right,” he answered quietly. “Frank, go fly and tell Jason to get Thalia here ASAP. Tell her it’s Zagreus. Piper, try to charmspeak the dogs. We need them out of the way now, and if you do that along with just going in and hitting them with your sword, it’d be most effective. Leo-“

He broke off again as the zombies surged forwards. “LIGHT ALL OF THEM ON FIRE, LEO!”

 _So that’s what the snapping meant_ , Leo thought as he hurled fireballs at the oncoming storm of creepiness. Shadow-guy… who was apparently Nico’s godly brother… could not only control the dead too, but the ones who Nico had gone through all that work to raise. Damn, he’d heard of sibling rivalry, but it was a pretty dick move to steal your kid brother’s hard work and mess with it so it tried to kill him and his buddies.

Even though he had a lot of zombies coming at him, aka one his worst nightmares, Leo had a lot of fun. Hey, he’d been given permission but Nico to light them all up. Aaaand he didn’t need to get Fallout Boy stuck in his head now. Great.

The one problems was that though he could unleash fiery hell upon the undead, Nico had worriedly stopped him when his flames got too close to the dogs. Piper was doing a good job of handling them herself, having put half of them to sleep (in the literal way, not the sad way of saying doggie-gone-bye-bye) and fending the rest off but keeping them away from the boys.

So it was just his job to get the creepy-ass zombies away. He would not let this end badly. He would not let them all die.

—

While Leo fought off the zombies with flame and sword, Nico was struggling to regain his strength and ability to control the dead. His leg was still killing him, but at least he hadn’t been hit on the head like Jason had. He could do this.

Of all the people to be here, it had to be Zagreus. He’d been lucky enough to only meet the guy a few times, but Zagreus was without a doubt one of the most asshole-ish sons of Hades. Originally, Hades had appointed Zagreus as the overseer of animal sacrifices, but that had just led Nico’s half-brother to abandon the Underworld in favor of working with live animals. Sounded nice, except for how Zagreus captured them and took away any free will the animals had.

Nico really wanted to get past here and find Percy and Annabeth. Actually, he really wanted them to have not been captured by gods-know-who in the first place (he did reluctantly believe Zagreus’s claim of innocence, but only because he knew the hunting god was enough an asshole to try to kill them just because). Then he could be back at Camp Half-blood, curled under blankets next to Leo and sleeping. Or not sleeping and on top of him. Either would be much better right now.

Nico suddenly hissed in pain as one of the attacking zombies (god, he’d been spending too much time with Leo if he was calling them that now) threw its own burning hand at him. With anger, Nico struck it with his sword, switching his grip on it to his unscathed left arm. To his surprise, it disappeared.

"Leo, try to break them into pieces!" he cried. "I think I can get rid of them then!"

Leo nodded and then attacked with even higher ferocity. Though Nico obviously had to concentrate to effectively banish the zombie parts, he was still able to watch the view.

The cavern only had a few flaming zombies left when suddenly the light from the entrance was blocked out. Glancing behind him, a grin broke out on Nico’s face when he saw Thalia Grace leading dozens of young women and animals. The Huntresses had arrived.

The crowd fanned out into the cave and to his shock, Artemis herself stepped forward.

"Zagreus," she said coolly. "I demand you freeze all your soldiers here."

"The son of Hephaestus has been doing such a good job of burning them, though. Would not freezing them undo his impressive work?" Zagreus asked, curling his lips.

Artemis snarled slightly, and the goddess’s power and anger was visible despite her childlike form. “ _Now_.”

Sighing, Zagreus waved his hand. All the dogs docilely sat down.

"And the reanimated corpses? The work of Hades’s son?" Artemis demanded.

"They are his work, O Olympian Goddess, and therefore his responsibility to deal with." Zagreus said with a shrug.

"DO YOU TAKE ME FOR A FOOL, WEAKLING? I KNOW THAT YOU TOOK CONTROL OF THEM! I KNOW YOU ARE HARBORING THE RIVER DEMON WHO STOLE THE SON OF POSEIDON AND DAUGHTER OF ATHENA, AND I KNOW YOU HAVE TRIED TO KILL INNOCENT DEMIGODS FOR NO GOOD REASON!" Artemis thundered, actually growing in size.

"If you are no fool, goddess, why am I still alive and allowed to do as I please with my animals? Did you not tell me two centuries ago you would stop me if I continued in my ways? Tsk tsk, empty promises that you could not follow through-"

"YOU IMPUDENT-" Artemis screamed, glowing a blinding silver for an instant. She then took a deep breath. "If there were not mortals here… but of course, that is your intention, is it not? Rile my anger so I kill these demigods with the sight of my true form, and therefore the blame is no longer yours to bear?"

Zagreus was silent and she scowled scornfully. Then she turned to her lieutenant. “Thalia, will you escort the demigods to the surface? I wish to deal with this impudent louse as I see fit. Assure them I shall return with Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase safely soon.”

Thalia nodded, gesturing the other demigods with a wave of her hand. Nico unsteadily rose to his feet, grasping Leo’s arm as they walked forward. Piper quickly came as well, following right behind the two of them.

No sooner had they left that Leo stopped and forced Nico to sit down. “Are you hurt?” he asked with concern.

"Leo, keep moving. We need to be far enough away from Lady Artemis that you will be safe," Thalia said.

"We’ll be fine," he insisted. "But are you okay?"

"I’m fine," Nico assured him. "Hazel healed me before I came down here."

"You were limping," Leo pointed out.

"It’s nothing!" Nico exclaimed, covering his leg with his arm.

"Hang on, is that a burn?!" Leo grabbed his arm before he could move it. "Did I burn you?!"

"No, Leo! Just stop! It was one of the damn zombies, okay?" Nico tried to pull away.

"Boys, deal with your relationship drama elsewhere. Do you want to be blasted by being in the proximity of a goddess showing her true form?" Thalia demanded. When they were silent, she nodded. "Right, if Nico has a hurt leg, then I’ll carry him. We just need to move."

He wanted to die from embarrassment as Thalia stopped down and scooped him up.  _Gods, why was she carrying him bridal style?_

Thalia walked briskly for several minutes before setting him down on a rock. “Right, Leo, do you have any ambrosia?”

"I’m okay!" Nico barked.

"No, you’re not, and you’re getting ambrosia," Leo said, patting his pockets. "Uhh, Piper, do you have any ambrosia?"

Piper rolled her eyes and winked at Nico. “Here you go,” she said, intentionally handing it to Thalia and not Leo.

Nico sighed and accepted the piece that Thalia gave him. Maybe if he healed quickly, they’d stop babying him.

They had just stood up to leave, Thalia thankfully letting him walk on his own now, when Artemis appeared in front of them. Impressively, given her small stature, she was carrying both Annabeth and Percy.

"You got them!" Piper exclaimed. "Are they okay?"

"I said I would retrieve them safely," Artemis said with a slight sniff. "You need not have worried."

"And Zagreus?" Nico asked.

Artemis frowned a little at him. “I have dealt with that scum as he deserves. You need not worry.”

Nico nodded and sighed a little with relief. Children of Hades usually were overeager to seek revenge. But after Artemis had taken care of him, Zagreus was probably zero threat now. Hopefully, this meant he could finally go home with Leo. And sleep. Or something.

-

Later, lying breathless in bed, Nico turned to Leo. “See? I am totally healed now.”

"I believe you," Leo laughed, leaning over to kiss the corner of his mouth.

"And please, stop beating yourself up. I told you to set them on fire, in case you forget." Nico gave him a mock-glare.

"I was probably overenthusiastic, though," Leo said with a sheepish squirm.

"Bullshit! You did fine. We might not have lasted until Artemis arrived if you hadn’t done exactly what you did," Nico insisted. "Plus, you did an amazing job of fighting them off, you know? It was nice to look at." He whispered the last part into Leo’s collarbone.

Leo squirmed a bit more. “Stop, that tickles! And well… I have a confession.”

Nico looked up in surprise through his eyelashes. “What?”

"I really, really, really hate your zombies," he whispered.

Nico blinked in confusion. “Say again?”

"Your - your zombies! The dead guys you summon! They freak me the fuck out and it was way too fun to burn them to smithereens." Leo stared down, biting his lips.

Nico stared at him, then through his head back and laughed. “I know that, you goddamned goof! Do you think you were subtle?”

Leo couldn’t help but laugh a little. “Wait, you knew? And you don’t mind?”

"Mind? Leo, I understand. You were patient when your firepowers unnerved me for a while." Nico cuffed him playfully on the shoulder.

"Well, yeah, because you didn’t want me to burst into flame during sex or something. I don’t really need to worry about you summoning the dead while you’re cumming." The grin suddenly melted off Leo’s face when Nico got a gleam in his eyes.

"That is… an interesting suggestion, Leo."

"No way! Don’t you even think about it!" Whether or not Nico was joking, that didn’t mean Leo couldn’t panic and overreact about the possibility.

Nico just laughed. “No, I won’t do it, Leo. Don’t worry. If you weren’t so creeped out by them, it’d be funny to consider. But as is… well, I’d hate to end perfectly good sex with zombies on fire.”


End file.
